Growing up, my parents and I would have a little competition as to who would be the first to say “rabbit, rabbit” on the first of each month, and whoever said it first would have good luck for the entire month. It was a fun little family tradition and continues to this day, with my dad usually winning now. He’ll text me “rabbit, rabbit” but because of the time difference (him, east coast, me, west coast), he always wins even though technically we wake up at the same time. I’ve roped Kristian into this tradition, too, but I usually win that as I tend to wake up earlier than he does.
It wasn’t until leaving New England that I realized…no one else does this. Or if they do, I haven’t met them. I looked it up a few years ago while living in New York, wondering if my family was just weird. Turns out, we’re not! It’s an old British tradition apparently, according to good ol’ Wikipedia. I also found this article in Yankee magazine that nicely addresses the funny superstition.
All that to say…it’s July! And time for a June garden recap! I started writing this last Friday but got distracted, so here we are. With May Grey long gone, and June Gloom out of the way, it’s been blue skies, light ocean breeze, and warm sunshine every day recently here in Santa Monica. It’s that delicious time of summer where the days are 75-80, dry heat, and all I want to do is bask in the sun like a lizard, soaking up the warmth (with SPF, of course) and enjoying every bit of summer. Just like the peppers and tomatoes want to do, as well! They’ve all taken off magnificently, especially the peppers that are growing in pots.
For my own sanity and for the sake of Future Amy reflecting on previous versions of our garden, I’m going to go through the garden clockwise with an update of how everything is doing.
Front Area/Entry
Ah, the concrete block herb and flower garden! Months back when I had the idea, this is along the lines of what I was picturing. Nasturtiums tumbling over the blocks, basil, sage, dill, and scallions ready to be picked at will. The dill has flowered, which I think means it doesn’t taste all that great anymore, but I’m leaving it because the flowers are so lovely. The wine barrel planter (that’s the free one we up-cycled from someone’s trash!) has…some mystery herbs in it. Well, some. I know there are chives, and purple basil, but that’s it. Also a zinnia from Sow Right Seeds (not an affiliate link) that I moved, and maybe cinnamon basil? Or Greek basil? Dear Future Amy, please label seeds better. Thank you! Love, Past Amy. We also added a little hummingbird feeder there, as we have oodles of the little things flying around and they can be as territorial and mean as they are cute. Which is VERY.
Wall Herb Garden
I’m excited to share this one for a few reasons! One, because Watex Green Living was kind enough to send me their Expandable Green Wall with built in drip irrigation to test out, and two, because I assembled it all by myself. We haven’t set up the drip irrigation yet, as I direct sowed all of the seeds and needed to mist frequently to start, instead of deeply. And if you asked me to identify all of the herbs planted, I couldn’t do it if you paid me. I mixed things around, and tried labeling, but go figure, pen washes off wooden clothespins pretty darn easily when you water frequently. I know what I planted, just not where, so it’ll be a lovely surprise! I’m happy to be using this vertical space to grow food, as it gets great sun and would otherwise be bland and beige and boring.
Main Beds 1-4
And the wine barrels, but that heading would have been too long. We’ve got yarrow! We’ve got mint! We’ve got calendula! We’ve got zinnias! And everything is doing well, but still on the smaller side, which I’m curious about. We had four giant sunflowers in these beds, but they’ve since wilted and been removed to dry. Kristian tells me to be patient, and that the plants are all growing, but since planting them all from seed in April, I guess I imagined some of them would be further along? Mint, I’m looking at you.
Behind the barrels, we have the kale bed which is still kicking and thriving, with bountiful harvests every 1-2 weeks, despite a brief run-in with some powdery mildew a few weeks ago. The three zucchini plants in this area are producing like gangbusters, and every day I see new ears of corn appearing underneath the telltale silks. I’ve been hand pollinating both the corn and the zucchinis when I remember, but for the most part trying to let nature do its thing. We also have some tomato plants tucked behind the corn which are proving hard to reach, so I’m leaving them be. Not pruning, not doing much of anything to them. Those are our big tomatoes, so they’ll take a little while longer to be ready anyways.
Main Beds 5-8
Our cherry tomatoes are thriving, while our trellised beans have been getting walloped by our resident birds. We have a bird feeder just on the other side of the huge ficus tree hedge, and the birds have taken to helping themselves to our bean leaves, thankfully leaving the beans alone but shredding the leaves to bits. We put some bird netting up along the back side of the trellis to dissuade them from entering from the ficus trees, and to make it a little more difficult for them to perch on the trellis and munch our bean leaves. So far, so good. They’re still in the garden a bit, which I don’t mind, but it’s not like a fast food drive-thru anymore. We have so many cherry tomatoes still in their green stage, which should be ready any day now. I’m not in a hurry, as both Kristian and I are on day 3 of a 21 day elimination diet (long story, it’s for me but he’s doing it in solidarity), and nightshades are one of the off-limits items.
Bed 7 is interesting. We have the monstrous cosmos plant/tree/shrub/bush, a gorgeous calendula, some sage, scallions, Chinese multicolor spinach that is really underwhelming in its production, despite being downright gorgeous color-wise, and a seriously lagging baby doll watermelon plant that I’m holding out hope for, but it’s not looking good. This is the second time we’re trying watermelon after getting zilch last year, so we’ll see, but I’ve resigned myself to not getting anything from the plant. Bed 8 has some borage, a lagging zucchini that is looking a bit yellow (gave it some seaweed fertilizer recently and that seems to have helped), and some speckled trout lettuce that is getting nicely shaded out by the big sunflower on the right.
Experimental Bed
This bed gets close to zero sunlight during the winter, and we didn’t have anything planted here last spring or summer so it’s just one big experiment this year! I have our sad, tiny, struggling lemon tree that I have uprooted and moved over 5 times, but I’m keeping it here for good now. Then we have yarrow, golden raspberry cutting, nasturtiums, gazanias, milkweed, rosemary, and my worms! Which I draped in shade cover today as it’s getting a little bit sunnier in that corner and I want to keep them nice and cool. This is one big experimental bed (hence the paragraph header), and I put random cuttings in here to see what sticks. I’m excited for it to fill in a bit more and look a little less…brown. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and all that jazz!
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